[Cat]

One of the factors often mentioned, but not fully explored or understood on this issue, is the role of depression in this mother’s actions. The incidence of depression is much higher in women than in men. I can’t really begin to go into the reasons for this, but they range from fluctuating hormone levels, to the inferior and dependent roles that women are still forced to play in a male-dominated, competitive society. A combination of these could have affected this women’s state of mind, and relate significantly to the possibility of her feeling herself to be a ‘brood mare,’ as you put it.

My point, really, is this: No one who hasn’t been genuinely, severely, clinically depressed can possibly understand what this condition does to your processes of logic and reasoning. It’s not just a state of deep sadness or anxiety, it leads to a total and incomprehensible (to the outsider) distortion of mental processes. I can imagine how a state of severe depression could lead you to believe rationally that killing your children was perfectly acceptable, justified or even for the best. That’s the kind of brutally twisted logic the mind is more than capable of in the depths of a depressive episode. I believe it’s possible that dominance by her husband (perhaps along with the ‘eager-to-please’ mentality common in people prone to depression), destruction of her own self-worth and hormonal problems caused by the birth of her children were at the root of her depressive illness, and that it’s perhaps then understandable why her misery and self-hatred became focused on her children. I’m not saying for a minute that I condone her actions, I’m just putting forward the possibility that there’s far more to be understood about this case and this murderer than whether she should have run away or got Norplant, and I think it would be exceptionally narrow-minded to dismiss her actions as evil by condemning her to die, without trying to untangle the complexity and humanity of her motivations.

User Detail :  

Name : Cat, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Buddhist, Age : 23, City : Leeds, State : NA, Country : United Kingdom, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Lower middle class, 

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